books

Since I signed my first lease 9 years ago, I’ve moved twelves times, including my most recent jaunt. In the same year I signed that first lease (on adulthood), The Weakerthans released their album Reunion Tour with one of most thoughtful odes to moving. This song beautifully portrays the feeling of leaving an old apartment behind, moving to new spaces and places, a time perfectly poised to push you into reflection.

This September 1st, Derek and I moved into a lovely new apartment. We shuffled the move around a trip to Canada, myself leaving early to help get ready for #aaronandbecca2016, while Derek, slowly but surely, biked our belongings in small boxes and awkward loads across the inner city from one furnished apartment to another. I returned to do only a final sweep and unpack into our new abode.

Moving, though a royal pain, is one of my favourite opportunities. It’s the easiest time of the year to practice a minimalist lifestyle. I strive to live a simple lifestyle with varying levels of success, but I am most successful during an apartment move. Every time I move, I have to sift through all the things I’ve collected over that year or two. Particularly with furnished apartments, the items I move can generally be labeled ‘stuff’. Because moving is such a pain, it’s a great time to make a break with that stuff that doesn’t deserve the sweat required to shuttle it to a new place.

Duna view between the old and new.

My Two Questions

Most recently, I’ve been using a butchered but reasonably effective version of the KonMari Method. I, like a lot of people, have as much emotional attachment to items from the memories and people associated with them, as the physical usefulness of them. Both emotional and utilitarian values are important to me, and my most treasured items have a combination of the two factors. So, in determining if I keep an item, I first ask ‘Does it bring me joy?’ and ‘Do I use it?’.

Is it trendy to review a book over a year after its release? If so, then I’m spot on. Here is my book review and reflection on This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate by Naomi Klein. It’s a book that has been a companion through two moves, two elections, dozens of life crises and more “Are-we-screwed-What-can-I-do” moments than I can count.

Rather than my introductory words, please enjoy the trailer to the partner film This Changes Everything as an effective backgrounder:

This Changes Everything is an engaging read. Klein takes magnificently complex topics and wrangles them into a readable and captivating work. The first striking feature was the accessibility of the text. When I opened its pages, the weight of the book felt daunting. Though an engaged citizen and environmentalist, I was worried that the book would read above my head and I would be left behind after the first chapter. Perhaps this was a silly assumption on a work from an accomplished journalist who writes for the public, but the title pushed my thoughts to an impenetrable manifesto. However, Klein guides the reader through each topic in a way that allows the gravity of each fact to be understood, while wrapped in a human-scale story.